Cell Phone Safety

Was just sitting here reading the "safety and product information" book (yes, book!) for my new phone and found out why it didn't come with the thin "jacket" that my previous phone did but, instead, with a very clunky "clip" - so thought I'd share. Recommendations now are that you don't carry your phone near your body when it's on (maintaining a distance of an inch). If you're carrying yours in your purse or briefcase, no worries. However, if you're in the habit of taking it in your pocket - that's no longer considered safe.

More Project Tips . . .

As I didn't get additional tips from anyone, here are 3 more from me. I'll send the tip sheet to Cheryl for formatting:

8. Avoid the “tyranny of the urgent.” It’s easy to be distracted by immediate requests that come in emails, instant messages, and phone calls. Acknowledge receipt, but pause to insert the new tasks into a realistic spot on your list rather than leaving what you’re working on to accomplish a lower priority item.
9. Use prime time wisely. Some tasks take more physical or mental energy than others, so allocate your time to maximize your productivity. Rather than staring at a blank screen when you’re not feeling creative, take a break by moving to more mindless tasks that also need to get done. Similarly, when tasks begin to feel tedious, switch gears to another important project that’s using a different set of skills.
10. Build in rewards and celebrations for getting things done. Whether tallying up ticky marks for each task completed (and celebrating when you hit 50) or marking significant project milestones with lunch out or an hour of pampering, take time to celebrate your successes. Acknowledging progress will inspire you to continue with projects that never seem to end.

Make URLs Shorter

Hi all...many, if not all of you, likely know about this already but I wanted to share anyway. Bitly offers a great service for shortening URLs (web links) and is especially helpful for Twitter and in cases where URLs go on forever. The initial suggested URL is assigned by Bitly but you can customize. Check it out at: https://bitly.com/

Projects that never end...

In a project-based organization like Life Strategies, it's easy to let projects without deadlines keep shifting down the list to make room for other high priority tasks. Here are a few tips to make our summer go more smoothly. If you think of a couple more tips, please use comments or send them by email - when we get to 10, I'll have Cheryl create a Tip Sheet for our resources.

1. Meet deadlines for high priority billable work; clearly this is important



2. Move other important tasks forward each day. These shouldn't be on anyone's "To Do" if they aren't important, so it's crucial to move them forward (or acknowledge when you're stuck). Take a careful look at your To Do lists. Check back through filed emails and project updates to be sure that everything you've said you'd do is listed.



3. Identify the quick wins. Is there anything on your list that can be done in 15 minutes or less? Block out an hour tomorrow and get 4 of those done! Continue daily until they're off your plate - you'll be amazed at the renewed energy you feel when countless small unfinished things aren't hanging over you.



4. Set deadlines for the important but not urgent items. Break them into small (one hour) tasks and make those tasks urgent by setting deadlines. Give yourself one hour each day to get one of those tasks complete. Add up the hours to give those overall projects a realistic deadline.



5. Cluster your day-to-day work. Depending on your role, this will be different for everyone (i.e., responding to phone, email, mail, or unexpected requests). Allocate a reasonable amount of space each day to these tasks - they're an important part of a customer-service business. However, they can't take over your whole day - or there won't be room for the billable work or other important tasks in 1, 2, 3, and 4 above.



6. Be accountable. If you've agreed to do something, the person who delegated assumes it will be done reasonably quickly - otherwise he or she would have delegated to someone else or kept it him or herself. If you've agreed to do a task and find it sitting for more than 2 days, check in with an update and renegotiate the agreement.



7. Reprioritize. Our work changes daily, so it's important to reprioritize at a personal, team, or organizational level depending on the tasks. Don't do this in isolation - just because something has shifted down your priority list doesn't mean that it's not still a higher priority task for someone else, for a reason you may not be aware of. If in doubt, consult!

Twitter/Website - Words to Avoid

Found an interesting article about twitter bios at http://www.bnet.com/blog/small-biz-advice/8-words-that-should-never-appear-in-your-twitter-bio/1752?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

The general message was to right in plain language without hyperbole, exaggeration, or fluff.

A related article about website was at http://www.bnet.com/blog/small-biz-advice/10-words-that-should-never-appear-on-your-website/966?tag=content;drawer-container which again highlighted the importance of plain language without the fluff.

Reboot Break?

Hi -

This article came my way while I was downloading email on a cruise ship - not my normal "Internet free break" but a reading/writing sabbatical. As you know, in recent years, I've taken my Internet free breaks and other opportunities to chunk my work (or get away from work altogether) very seriously . . . and I've encouraged each of you to do the same. As I've written and spoken on, this article confirms that without real breaks we're susceptible to burnout. Although I know we have lots of work to do, our level of work isn't sustainable without self-care and "rebooting." I encourage you to continue to take care of yourself - and thank you for all you do for us. :-)


http://santa-fe-group.com/news/taking-a-reboot-break-offers-cure-for-burned-out-employees-boosts-on-the-job-creativity-and-productivity/

Looking for Instructors

Hi everyone -

As we have quite a few projects on our plate, Deirdre and I are hoping to do a bit less teaching for awhile. If you're interested in additional teaching, please let me or Deirdre know.

Screen Capture Software & CPS Update

I had two updates flagged for the keeping in touch blog

1. Here is a link to an alternative screen capture software that Jayne recommended. http://www.faststone.org/FSCapturerDownload.htm. I haven't tired it out as I've got

2. Previously the CPS software (i.e., the clickers) wouldn't function on a 64 bit system however, there is an update - read http://www.einstruction.com/about-einstruction/press-room/new-features-added-to-einstruction-software for more information or see http://www.einstruction.com/support/downloads?redirect_src=/downloads for the download.

Bowling

Bowling for Big Brothers is coming up soon - we're looking forward to spending a few hours together with many of you - perhaps we could meet ahead of time for brunch at De Dutch? Let me know. :-)

I found the online donation system very effective. If you're not bowling but would still like to donate or invite friends to donate, there's a link in Moodle and also in the What's New! section of the Life Strategies site (or click here.

Although we've exceeded the original goal (and the $100 Gerry has already raised was in cash donations, so not showing on our site), I'd like to set a new goal of $1000. I think it's do-able if each member of the team just reach out to a few friends. :-)

Career Engagement - Our New Model

Hi there -

Thought the most important people to share our new model with were you - members of our team. I'm not going to write up the whole explanation here (similar to "Flow"). Matching capacity (which could be a combination of skills, resources, and contextual influences) with challenge contributes to engagement; too much challenge leads to becoming overwhelmed, and eventually disengaged; too little challenge leads to feeling underutilized and eventually disengaged. Today, I applied this to a refugee immigrant, finding a bimodal effect (i.e., both overwhelmed due to worry for his family's safety, limited capacity to find suitable work in Canada, very little money available here - and also underutilized, the far-too-typical story of professional immigrants who have left very high-powered jobs in their former countries). The model would help inform strategies for moving him back to engagement - working from both ends concurrently.

Embedding YouTube Videos into PPT

Thanks to some fabulous articles on the web, I was able to embed YouTube videos into PPT - thought I'd share.

For offline viewing (i.e., when you can't get Internet access)

1. Download the video you want using the free YouTube down loader software - you must install this software on your computer
1. http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/ 
2. Use the same down loader software to convert the file into a .WMV file (Windows Media Player - if using a PC)
3. Use the Insert Media option in PPT to insert the movie

Embedding videos for online viewing is a bit more complicated as you need to work with the Developer tab within PPT which may not even appear as an option within PPT. The following link explains this option really well: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/9698.aspx 

Decent Work

Just received a newsletter from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and they have a focus on "Decent Work" - see: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm

It would be great if we could embed this idea within some of our courses (Canada is notoriously absent from the list of Decent Work projects and yet we know that there are many segments of the population in Canada, including First Nations people and farmworkers here in the Fraser Valley, that are working in horrid conditions and far below the poverty line).

Proposal Tips

Hi everyone -
In preparing for the in-house proposal writing workshop I facilitated for a local service provider this week, and also for our own e-course starting on Wednesday, we prepared another 10 Tips - thought you might find it helpful in your other organizations as, in BC especially, we're all in the midst of proposal frenzy!

Google Search Tips

I can count how many times I use Google in a work day - however, we may not be making the most efficient searches. I just wanted to post this link to a website containing 100 search tips - http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2011/01/17/100-google-search-tricks-for-the-savviest-of-students/.

Of particular interest are the Reference, Better Results, Fine Tuning, and Scholar sections which link out to longer articles so there is a wealth of information available.

Feel free to browse through - we'll likely be transitioning some of these tips into another 10 tip document.

Google Search Tips

Hi Everyone -
The Yorkville U Librarian shared this link and I've bookmarked it as a favourite.

I asked Cassie to check it out earlier today and here were her preliminary recommendations: "Of particular interest are the Reference, Better Results, Fine Tuning, and Scholar sections which link out to longer articles so there is a wealth of information available."

Recommended Theory Blog

Hi everyone -
This blog comes highly recommended from Jim Bright (Australia) and Tristam Hooley (head of an international career research group in Derby, England): http://careersintheory.wordpress.com/
Thought it might provide some useful links for our Theories courses.

CANNEXUS Reflections

CANNEXUS was truly a wonderful conference this year - great connections, wonderful presentations, exceptional keynotes (especially Jim Bright and Paul Martin), effective meetings (Standards and Guidelines revisions focus group, 2 meetings for the Canadian Council of Career Development Associations), and a completely unexpected surprise when Stu Conger presented me with The Gold Medal and Diamond Pin Award for Leadership in Career Development (a rare honour, as only 5 medals have been minted and awarded - previous recipients were Lynne Bezanson [CCDF co-Executive Director] and Phil Jarvis [National LifeWork Centre - Choices, Blueprint, RealGame] in 2004, Bernhard Jenschke in 2006 [IAEVG President], and Bryan Hiebert [IAEVG President] in 2007.

Workshop on Research Ethics

Thought I'd share this in case it's of interest to some of you...
Cheers,
Roberta

Dear BC researchers and research administrators;

You are invited to the joint TCPS 2 BC regional workshop and BCEHI Open House on February 3-4 in Vancouver at the SFU Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

The Panel on Research Ethics is hosting a BC regional workshop as part of its educational outreach in support of the implementation of the TCPS 2. The BCEHI Open House will provide an update on the BC ethics harmonization project, and engage the BC wide REB community in its next phase of activities. PRE and BCEHI are jointly supporting the costs of the venue, refreshments and the luncheon on Day 2. The draft program is enclosed for your reference.

Registration is now open and is required by Friday, January 28th. To register, please click on the link enclosed https://confreg.uvcs.uvic.ca/?cid=1664 and complete the form. (There are no costs for the event so please ignore the columns indicating fees). Workshop space is limited to 50 participants for each of the two workshops per session so please register early!

Looking forward to seeing you all on February 3rd.

Regards,
Margo

Margo Farren, MHA
BC Ethics Harmonization Initiative (BCEHI) Project Manager
email: bcehi@uvic.ca
tel: 250.853.3847

Excel - Copying Over Values Only

I've been working in excel lately for the SkillsPlus assessments where I've used equations to sum up and average scores for each participant. In order to provide an overview of scores I had to transfer scores from individual pages. As this score were derived from equations, when copying and pasting, you need to right click the pasted cell and select "value only" otherwise your just copying over the equation .